Diabetes mellitus (type 1 and type 2 diabetes) is a serious chronic disease linked to inability of our body to produce and utilize insulin, the hormone responsible for converting sugar (glucose) into energy. Thus, people with diabetes always have increased sugar levels in the blood. There are type 1 diabetes known also as juvenile diabetes as it usually occurs in children and young people, and type 2 diabetes which is more common compared to the first type and usually occurs in adult people. The main diabetes risk factors include being overweight, having a family history of this disease, suffering from elevated blood pressure or increased LDL bad cholesterol levels in the blood, as well as smoking, being inactive and leading unhealthy lifestyle. Read more about what is diabetes, its symptoms and causes.

Since year by year, the number of people suffering from this chronic health condition is firmly increasing, the issue of type 1 and type 2 diabetes prevention has grown into a topical one for modern society. There is a great deal of studies are being carried out around the globe in order to learn more about the factors that increase the risks for diabetes or looking for new technologies to prevent diabetes. It is possible to find plenty of tips and advice on diabetes prevention, and it is very important to maintain active healthy lifestyle in order to lower our risks for diabetes. According to the findings of a recent study, those of us who eat a wide variety of fresh veggies and fruits year round have a bit lower chanced to suffer from type 2 diabetes.

The study by a team of experts of the Institute of Metabolic Science in Cambridge included analyzing the data on 3,700 British citizens aged between 40 and 79 collected for 11 years. For the time of the research, 653 people of the study group developed type 2 diabetes caused by various diabetes risk factors. All the participants were asked to keep dairies of the foods they consume to be analyzed later on. As the expert team found out, about one third of the participants used to consume plenty of fresh veggies and fruit year round, about six servings a day. As a result, type two diabetes incidence in this group was the lowest, only 16 per cent. At that, in the group of the participants who had only two-three servings of fresh fruit and vegetables a day, 21 per cent of people developed type 2 diabetes.

Moreover, during the study it became apparent that consuming various fruits and veggies according to the time of the year can assist in diabetes prevention very much! It is reported that those participants who consumed fruits and veggies of 16 types during the year had up to 40 per cent lower risks of diabetes compared to those participants who reported eating only 8 types of veggies and fruits 5-6 times a day. Therefore, according to Nita Forouhi, one of the study leaders and a leading specialist of the Institute of Metabolic Science, variety plays a great role for type 2 diabetes prevention and should be considered one of the most important issues when using a healthy diet for diabetes prevention.

Certainly, as Nita Forouhi said to the media, there are other numerous diabetes risk factors which were spotted and taken into account during the research. Thus, the findings of the study should be put to the following: eating a healthy diet rich in a good variety of fresh fruit and veggies can lower our risks for diabetes up to 21 per cent. Unfortunately, the findings of the UK experts do not confirm that by consuming plenty of various fruit and veggies we can totally protect ourselves from this disease, however, this is an effective, easy, healthy and pretty much affordable way to lower our risks of diabetes, regardless of other factors. Read more about this study, the findings and plenty of other interesting information about type 2 diabetes prevention in the April 2012 issue of the journal Diabetes Care.